Bentley Heads Out on the Road to Face RIT
The Matchup: Bentley heads out on the road this weekend to take on the RIT Tigers in a series that could have a big impact on playoff seeding as the postseason approaches in a few weeks. The series kicks off on Friday night at 7:05 and concludes on Saturday at 5:05.
The Falcons' 4-1 win over Army West Point last Friday night at Bentley Arena was the team's 5th win in a row. That propelled them up the Atlantic Hockey standings, and they enter the weekend in 5th place with 35 points (11-11-2).
The Tigers come into the weekend in 4th place with 38 points (11-7-4), after a win and tie (3x3 OT loss) against Robert Morris last weekend.
Follow the Games: The games can be seen live on http://www.FloHockey.TV, which requires a subscription.
Fans can also follow live stats at the following link: https://ritathletics.com/sidearmstats/mhockey/summary
A Look at the Standings: Three weekends remain in the regular season. The Falcons are in 5th place, but they and Air Force are the only teams in the league to have played 24 conference games so far. RIT is in 4th place with 38 points from 22 games played. AIC leads the pack with 49 points, followed by Sacred Heart (46 points) and Army West Point (40 points). Robert Morris and Air Force are tied for 6th with 33 points, but the Colonials have played 22 games so far.
The top five teams at the end of the regular season get a bye to the quarterfinals, with the top four hosting, while the 6-8 seeds host a first round series on the weekend of March 6-8.
Recapping Last Weekend: Bentley ran its winning streak to five games with a 4-1 victory over Army West Point last Friday night. Senior Jonathan Desbiens scored two goals in the first 4:28 of the game to give Bentley an early 2-0 lead. Senior Matt Riggleman scored in the 2nd period, and Desbiens completed his hat trick at 17:48 of the 2nd to make it a 4-0 game.
On Saturday, the Falcons fell to No. 11 ranked Arizona State 3-0, despite outshooting the Sun Devils 28-17.
Things to Know: Desbiens' hat trick was the 3rd of his career. The others came as a freshman against RIT (Jan. 28, 2017) and as a sophomore at Niagara (Nov. 3, 2017).
The last hat trick by a Bentley player came nearly two years ago to the day. Kyle Schmidt scored three goals in a 5-2 win at RIT on Feb. 3, 2018.
Bentley is unbeaten in six straight games against RIT with a 5-0-1 record. That includes two straight sweeps on the road, in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons.
Last season the teams played just one series, at Bentley Arena. The first game ended in a 2-2 tie, but Bentley won the second game 5-2. Five different players had goals, and Aidan Pelino made 24 saves in net for the win.
Bentley is 6-0 all-time at the Polisseni Center, which opened for the 2014-15 season. Bentley first played there in the 2015-16 season.
Sophomore goalie Fraser Kirk has the 2nd best goals against average in Atlantic Hockey at 2.21. Kirk also has the 2nd best winning percentage (.708) in the league, with an 8-3-1 record. He is a two-time AHA Goalie of the Week this season (Dec. 3, Feb. 4).
Desbiens' three goals last weekend pushed him to 47 for his career. That is 9th all-time in the program's Div. I history. His 93 points is T-13th all-time.
Matt Gosiewski is the 2nd leading rookie scorer in Atlantic Hockey with 23 points, and he has the most goals among freshmen with 10.
Sophomore Jakov Novak is tied for 2nd in the league in points (29) and tied for 3rd in goals (15).
Up Next: Bentley will have a bye next weekend. They close out the regular season at home against Holy Cross (Feb. 28) and away to the Crusaders (Feb. 29).